Q. and A. with C. Trent Rosecrans, baseball beat writer at cnati.com

C. Trent Rosecrans was the baseball beat writer for The Cincinnati Post when Scripps closed its hometown newspaper as a joint operating agreement ran out on New Year's Eve, 2007. Now he's the managing editor of cnati.com and he's still covering major league baseball. From the Reds' spring training camp in Goodyear, Ariz., he agreed to answer my questions.

You mean besides a regular paycheck? Well, I haven't worked at a newspaper since Dec. 31, 2007 when the Cincinnati Post closed, and things have changed a ton since then. I was pretty early on the blog bandwagon, so I was constantly updating that -- often from my Blackberry. But since then you've got Twitter, video, the rest. I don't know how much it is different now than what other newspaper beat writers do -- but then I have the whole other side, the management, sales, development, all the other crap (especially photograph). It's amazing. The biggest thing I miss is having editors. You complain about editors when you have them and they're a giant pain in the ass -- but when you don't have them, you miss 'em. There's nobody to blame for your mistakes other than yourself. and you realize how much they help you. I issue this as a blanket apology to all the editors I've ever worked with -- well, with an exception or three. The good ones know who they are and I appreciate them.

What have you had to learn about photos, videos, etc.?

Basically that it's hard. And expensive. It's easy to do poorly, but difficult to do well. I'm doing my best, but I've been lucky to have some very talented photographers help me out quite a bit.

What was it like to be there for the last days of The Cincinnati Post?

Sad. Really sad. I was actually at a wedding in Florida on Dec. 29 and drove back to Cincinnati just so I could be there the last morning. It was surreal. We had a string quartet there. I cried. I really did. What was worse was people coming in trying to get copies of the last issue -- they printed twice the number of copies and people who didn't work there didn't get one. I was wondering if all these people were so sad about us going out of business, where had they been as circulation went down?

But I will say, when I was hired by the post in March 2004, they were upfront and honest the whole time to me that Dec. 31, 2007, was likely to be the last day. I entered into my employment there with full knowledge of the deal. I saw it as a way to achieve my dream of covering big league baseball, and the gamble was worth it.

What jobs did you have in between the newspaper and this one?

Clear Channel Cincinnati started talking to me about a job even before the Post closed. They had some grand plans about beefing up their original content only and there were some great ideas. My immediate bosses were great and encouraged me and helped me do as much as I could, but it was the muckity-mucks in corporate that held us back from doing what we could do.

However, I did get some resistance from some who didn't understand what radio stations were doing with a writer. And after awhile, those people must have won out, because I was laid off. It's sad, I think they're seeing now what I could have done if I hadn't been held back there by corporate red tape. But that's what American corporations seem to like to do now, cut off their nose to save their dime. (Yes, I realized I mixed that metaphor, but, hey, creative license.)

Did you have to work to regain your access as a beat writer?

Yes, and there are still hoops I jump through. Luckily, I have been around and have credibility with the gatekeepers, who I must say have been very supportive. They see the empty seats in their press boxes, they know its dwindling even as interest increases. They're adjusting too. Luckily I work with some of the best in the business here. UC and Xavier have been great, so has Miami University. And the two pro team PR departments here in town -- Rob Butcher with the Reds and Jack Brennan with the Bengals are absolute pros. They may not always agree with you, but they'll listen to reason and have a good discussion. I've had lots of conversations with them and others on their staff about the changing role of media.

Did you ever worry that you wouldn't make it back to what you enjoy doing?

Still do. Every damn day.

Is this a career for you still?

In terms of making money? Not yet. But I hope it can still be. I don't know what else I'm qualified to do. It's not fun not having a job. I'm not alone, and I can play MarioKart online with a ton of other unemployed friends, but I'd rather be working. I'm still working, but I'm not getting paid. But this is a foundation and I feel like it's important that I try something. I honestly didn't know what to do; I thought I could stick around and feel sorry for myself or try something. This is me trying something.

Is this something a laid-off journalist could do in another town?

I think so. Hell, we've even talked about franchising and selling the format and front-end system we've developed. This has been developed from the ground up.There's a lot of bells and whistles built in, it's a pretty great format.

How do you pay for your spring training trip?

We told our readers if they wanted to read what we could do from spring training, chip in a few bucks and we'd see what we could do. I'd read the average spring training trip costs $8,000. I thought maybe I could.

Whose idea was the cnati.com Web site?

My best friend and business partner Lee Heidel told me I could do it. Lee runs Heideldesign.com, a web design company in Savannah, Ga. He's the best friend you could ever have and an amazing businessman and web designer. There are so many bells and whistles built into this system. We have a Kindle feed, an iPhone app, just about anything. If the business fails, it won't be because of the technology. It may not be because of the content, either. I've been blessed with more people believing in me than I tend to believe in myself. I've got fantastic writers who are helping out like Scott Priestle (late of the Columbus Dispatch), Paul Dehner Jr. (late of the Albany (Ga.) Herald) and Katie Budke and photographers (Brian Baker, Paul Armstrong and Chris Bergmann) helping out and then there's Lee. Plus the support (and health insurance) I get from my wife, I'm pretty damn lucky.

What coverage do you provide that's different from ESPN-type coverage or so many fans sharing information for free?

ESPN doesn't care about Cincinnati. Pretty simple. Could this work in Boston or New York? I don't know. But there's a lack of coverage of those in the fly-over country. ESPN only cares about the Red Sox, Yankees, Patriots, Cowboys and UNC-Duke, and SEC football.

Where do you stand in the debate over old-school scouting and sabermetrics?

I believe there's a happy medium somewhere, but I lean heavily toward the numbers guys in most arguments. I used to be dead-set against silly acronyms and all that stuff, but then I started reading the reasoning, thought and research behind them. I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about sabermetrics. There's the whole "mom's basement" cliche that is just silly and played. At its base, the sabermetrics community is trying to better understand something they enjoy and questioning everything they know. To me, that's healthy thought -- of course, it can be taken to an unhealthy extreme, but it's still good to be out there. I don't know the math, but I enjoy the theory behind it and find it more honest than saying, "well, that's the way it's always been." There are things numbers don't tell you, but at least there's a reasoning behind it.

Anything else you want people to know about cnati.com?

Just the amazing ammount of talent that's here. How I became the ringleader, I'll never know. But I'm grateful. I hope to sell advertising, so if you want to buy an ad, Brian, I'll cut you a break.